Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, the head of the Orthodox Church's department for relations between the church and society, complained that Russian women dressed like strippers and suggested a nationwide dress code should be introduced to ensure both sexes dress more conservatively.

"If she (a woman) is wearing a miniskirt, it is provocative," he said. "If she is drunk at the same time then she is even more provocative, and if she herself is actively seeking contact with people and is then surprised when that contact ends in rape she is wrong."

The problem, he laimed, was that some Russian women confused the street with a strip club and dressed like prostitutes.

"A woman who is barely dressed or made up like a clown will certainly not find a man as a partner in life with an ounce of sense or self-respect," he said.

His comments provoked uproar, prompting more than 700 feminists to sign a petition to the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, demanding he denounce the cleric's statements.

Human rights activist Ludmila Alexeyeva said: "It's all nonsense. Let people dress how they like. Next they'll be telling women not to wear lipstick."

The petition called the archpriest's statements "discriminatory and insulting" towards women, saying he seemed to be justifying rape.

It also complained about the views of another outspoken cleric, Archpriest Dmitry Smirnov, who proposed that women who opt for abortions should be jailed for eight years and claimed men were 25 per cent more intelligent than women.

Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, the cleric who likened women to strippers, appeared to be in no mood to apologise however. He said he was glad he had started a public debate, denied he was justifying rape, and said a nationwide dress code was needed.

He also criticised men for wearing shorts, trainers and T-shirts.

"It would be good to draw up an all-Russian dress code. You think that is a utopia? It is not. People will soon have to get used to it," he said.